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Lot essay

The woodcut above the monotype on the present work is a head piece for Sourire, the monthly broadsheet which Gauguin wrote, illustrated and published for nine months in 1899. The journal was largely devoted to criticism of the colonial administration in Tahiti, which for Gauguin symbolized the evils of the modern world.

This transfer monotype, a technique invented by Gauguin and based on the carbon paper principle, continues this theme. The dedicatee, Mr. Coulon, was the publisher of another satirical journal, Les Guepes, to which Gauguin had contributed. The central sleeping figure is Gustave Gallet, the colonial governor at whose feet stands the eponymous dog, a dog with the artist's own features. In his monotype Gauguin is warning the local authority that he has assumed a watchdog role.